Sick Day
by Etagirl
Summary: Just an idea I've had rolling around in my head for awhile, what would happen if the whole batfamily (excluding Alfred and Bats) got sick? The first chapter consists of Nightwing getting sick, and I plan to add more chapters of the other kids later. Hurt/Comfort, tons of funny sweet daddy Bats fluff. Excluding Damian because as far as I'm concerned he doesn't exist.


It all started on a particularly cold winter night. Dick and Bruce suited up, as usual, to go on their evening patrol of Gotham City.

"Ready to go, Nightwing?" Batman called, standing in the batcave waiting for Dick.

"Yeah, almost!" he called back.

This was strange, typically Nightwing was ready as quickly if not faster than Batman. Why was tonight taking him so long? Batman looked up at the stalagmites pondering this oddity. Come to think of it, Dick had been behaving a bit strangely earlier as well. He was coughing though Bruce had chalked this up to the dry winter air. He also looked a bit flushed, but perhaps that was just his imagination?

Finally Nightwing came out, suited up and ready to go, "Alright, let's do this!"

Batman detected an unusual note of eagerness in Dick's voice, "You okay? You've been acting weird all day."

Shit! Nothing got by that man, did it?

Dick stuttered, "Y-yeah, I'm fine. Come on, let's go!" he hoped Bruce wouldn't notice he had been feeling a bit under the weather.

Batman eyed him suspiciously, even gave him the infamous bat-glare, but at this point it was rite of passage in the Wayne household to not be intimidated by Bruce's stare. Nightwing brushed him off and jumped into the batmobile. Batman followed after.

Not long later the two were out of the cave, cruising through the emptier streets of Gotham. They quickly happened upon a crime in progress. Just some thugs robbing a bank, nothing they couldn't ordinarily handle. However, Dick was a bit off that night.

They crashed through the skylights, something they'd done a hundred thousand times before, landing gracefully in front of the would be robbers.

Batman quickly surveyed his enemies and surroundings. Two, no, three men wielding guns, one at the front desk demanding money. Panicked civilians, not as many as during the day but enough to warrant caution. Some were frozen in fear, others crouched with their hands over their heads. The poor desk lady looked absolutely terrified.

"Back away. Slowly," Batman barked at the criminals.

One of them did begin backing away, however the other one stopped him, and the first one remained at the front with pointing his gun at the bank teller. Gotta disarm them. Fast. With a swift kick, Batman leaped and knocked the gun out of the first one's hands. Now the woman behind the desk was at least safe. The other two began shooting at him.

"Nightwing!" he yelled.

"Got it!" Nightwing flew through the air, doing a flip and grabbing the gun out of one of their hands.

"That all you got?" he taunted.

"Grr, you'll pay for that!" the disarmed thug began to yell.

The one remained armed thug pointed his gun at Dick, pulling the trigger. Now, this wouldn't usually be a problem, except tonight Nightwing was fighting a fierce fever, in addition to bad guys. He tried to jump out of the way but was too slow.

"Graggh!" Nightwing yelled as the bullet penetrated his abdomen. He gripped his side in pain.

"Nightwing!" Batman yelled, rushing over to deliver a swift punch to the offender's forehead, knocking him out. No one messes with his family.

Still, it was too late, the damage was already done. Nightwing cringed as he gritted his teeth.

"I-I'm fine… take care… of the patrons!" he gestured to the now panicking people.

That gunshot had sent them into disarray, running to and fro in fear. Batman tore a piece of his cape and pressed it against Dick's wound, then turned to take out the rest of the villains.

Unfortunately in his momentary distraction, the first thug had a chance to recover his kicked away gun, and pointed it straight at Batman. Just barely dodging the bullets, Bruce managed to make his way back up to the front to tackle him.

Dick staggered to his feet, refusing to be beat by a little bullet wound. Despite the weariness of his body from the sickness and the stinging pain of his injury, Nightwing ran up to the last remaining thug, who at this point was trying to escape. He kicked him in the soft spot behind the knees, sending him sprawling to the floor.

"Argh!" the robber cried out.

However in his anger and brashness, Dick failed to see that the last thug had a knife.

Batman noticed though, "Nooo!"

"Huh?"

Putting down the first criminal, Bruce dashed to the back of the bank, throwing himself between the two.

Shink! The blade made a gruesome wet sound as it cut through Batman's flesh.

"Nnrgh!" he cried out.

"Batman!" Nightwing cried.

Through sheer luck or perhaps willpower, Batman managed to stay on his feet. He looked down. The wound wasn't too bad, fortunately. He then kicked the third thug in the head, knocking him out. In all the confusion, however, the first one had managed to get behind Nightwing, preparing to shoot him in the back. Once again, Bruce saved him, tackling him out of the way and punching the robber in the face. Finally, the last man was down. Not before Batman had managed to get grazed from the bullet that the thug had shot however. Not to mention burned from being in such close vicinity to the barrel. Bruce gripped his shoulder.

"Batman, I'm so sorry!" Dick felt terrible. If he hadn't slipped up this wouldn't have ever happened.

"Why didn't you tell me… you weren't feeling well?" Bruce hissed angrily, standing up. Nightwing stood up as well.

Dick looked ashamed, "I… I didn't want you to tell me I couldn't go out on patrol with you tonight. I didn't…"

Just then Dick felt incredibly woozy. He wasn't sure if it was the fever or blood loss, but he suddenly tipped and lost his balance, falling to the floor.

Fortunately Bruce was faster, and he caught him. Batman sighed, then, looking around at the bewildered citizens, stood back up, placing Dick's arm around his shoulder.

"They should be out for awhile," he nodded towards the unconscious criminals. "You! Call the police!" he shouted at one of them, a businessman who flinched but then immediately took his phone out and started dialing.

Ordinarily, Batman would stick around to make sure the thugs were arrested properly, but he had Dick to worry about. The two staggered towards the car. Halfway there, however, Dick's legs gave out and so Bruce carried him the rest of the way.

"Come on, let's get you home," Bruce helped Nightwing into the passenger side.

"S-sorry…"

Bruce got in the other side and started the batmobile up, "...No, I'm sorry."

"Huh?" Dick turned to look at Bruce, who was focused on driving.

"It's my fault. I noticed you were acting strangely earlier and didn't say anything. I should've stopped you from going out on patrol with me."

"How could you have known…?" Nightwing muttered weakly, shutting his eyes.

"Hey, stay with me!" Batman yelled. "We're almost there!"

Within minutes the two arrived back at the batcave.

The batmobile's collapsable window opened up.

"Good lord, what happened?!" Alfred yelled when he saw the two of them.

Bruce leaped out, gingerly picking up Dick and bringing him over to a medical bed.

Alfred looked Bruce up and down, "Are you alright, sir?"

"Don't worry about me, just help Dick."

"As you wish."

Bruce sat down on the other medical table and began patching himself up.

"Master Bruce… he has a fever! ...Did you know this?" Alfred asked as he removed the bullet.

"Nngh…" Bruce didn't say anything, still angry with himself for not doing something earlier.

"If you knew about this, you should've said something!" Alfred scolded.

"Not… his fault…" Dick weakly whispered. "I… hid it."

Alfred sighed and shook his head, "What am I going to do with you two?"

Eventually Alfred finished patching up Dick's wounds, then he turned to Bruce.

"He should be fine, fortunately he didn't lose too much blood and the bullet didn't damage any internal organs."

Bruce let out a sigh of relief. He stood up.

"Come on, let's get him to bed."

Batman carried Dick upstairs to his bedroom, placing him gently in his bed.

"Th-thanks…" Dick blushed.

"Hush, just rest now," Alfred put a finger to his lips.

Batman nodded, running off to get medical supplies to treat his fever. They couldn't cure his disease, only time could do that, but they could at least make him a bit more comfortable. Bruce returned with painkillers and pills to reduce the fever. Dick was also shaking, due to the illness making him feel cold, not helped by the time of year and temperature.

Finally, though, the medicine started to make him feel a bit better, and the blankets warmed his shivering body. Dick couldn't help but smile a bit and relax, sinking deeper into the sheets.

Bruce had a wry smile, "Feeling a bit better?"

Dick blushed, "Sh-shut up!"

In truth, however, Bruce was just glad Dick was alright and he was able to provide him with some comfort. He hated to see his son this way, in pain, suffering…

"Get some rest," Bruce said, turning out the lights.

"Aye, aye, captain," Dick somehow still managed to make cracks.

Then he closed his eyes, and fell into a deep, peaceful, sleep…


End file.
